John nodded towards the Varis Clan referee before he turned around and started to walk off the stage.
"Wait a minute." A loud voice boomed out from the stands. The spectators all turned towards the source of the voice, Warren Gildar.
"There's no way a middle Mist Creation boy beat one of my juniors that easily. I have a feeling that he is using some sort of powerful treasure or artifact to help him, which is clearly prohibited."
Waylon Varis was just about to respond when Barden Fenix suddenly shouted out instead.
"What the hell are you talking about you slimy old bastard? Our Fenix Clan isn't like your sect, we don't cheat and never have. Besides, I'm sure even an aging old fart like you should realize that the fluctuations that powerful treasures or artifacts give off would be easily noticeable by all of us. Sit down while you still have some dignity left."
Warren Gildar narrowed his eyes as he stared at Barden with anger. "You dare talk to me like that boy?" Warren Gildar was the sect leader of the Crimson Valley Sect, and was over three hundred years old. Compared to him, Barden Fenix, who was around fifty years old, was just a child, although both of them had Core Formation cultivations.
"So what? What are you going to do about it?" Barden shouted back in anger. He was proud of John's accomplishment, but this Crimson Valley bastard was trying to get John disqualified without any evidence.
Warren was about to respond when Waylon Varis spoke up. "We all know that John didn't use an artifact or treasure, or we all would have noticed it. Do you have anything else to say or will you return to your seat?"
Warren looked at Waylon before responding, "Fine, but the boy clearly attacked with excessive force. He could have easily won that fight without breaking half the bones in our juniors body."
"Excessive force my ass. Give your boy a few healing pills and within a few weeks he'll be back to full health." Cade Fenix had been silently listening to Warren mouth off, but he had finally shouted out in anger at Warren's antics.
"He's right. Although John used more power than necessary to win, it was not excessive in terms of getting disqualified. John has won this round, so let's move on." Waylon sided with Cade Fenix on this matter as well.
"Fine, but don't blame us if your Fenix Clan boy is injured 'excessively' in future rounds." Warren returned to his seat, but not before uttering one last warning.
John stood there silently while the conversations were going on, at which point he returned to his seat by Ryan and Miko. Many of the surrounding Fenix Clan members looked at John with respect and reverence, especially those that had been eliminated already.
"Haha, good job. I expected nothing less." Ryan said as John returned.
"Goddamn that felt so good to watch. Do it again in your next fight." Miko excitedly followed up. He felt quite refreshed whenever he saw any Crimson Valley Sect member get beaten, especially in the manner that John had won.
"Haha, don't worry, there will be more to come." John chuckled as he sat down.
Miko turned to John after and eagerly started badgering him with questions.
"How did you get so strong? And how did you beat that guy that fast?"
John only shrugged at Miko's questions, which only further fueled Miko's barrage of questions.
After the crowd settled down, the remaining fights continued until the winners were decided. After twenty eliminations, sixty four participants were left in the tournament. Waylon Varis once again stepped onto the main stage and addressed the crowd.
"We now have sixty four remaining juniors. The tournament will be single round elimination, and whoever makes the top sixteen automatically qualifies for the pocket realm. The last four slots will be decided after we have a winner. We will post the next round matches shortly"
Time quickly passed by, and the matches for the next round were posted. John and Ryan walked to the posting board and took note of their match ups. There were thirty two fights to be carried out in this round, and the fights were divided into seven stages. Ryan had his fight occur in the first stage, while John's appeared to be in the fourth stage.
"Looks like you're up right away. Good luck!!" John said to Ryan.
"Mhm, after your showing, I can't have a lacking performance either." Ryan confidently walked up to his fighting platform while John walked back to the stands and sat next to Miko.
Ryan's first opponent was one of the winners from the first round of forty contestants. It was a girl from the Flowing River Sect, who appeared to be around fifteen years old. Her light blue robe appeared to wave in the wind like a winding stream, and she held a thin, light blue sword at her side.
Ryan nodded his head to her, and she did the same. The referee explained the rules once more before the fight officially began. The girl knew she was the underdog in the fight, and so she immediately started the fight with her full power.
The Flowing River Sect focused on fluidity and speed in fighting, as opposed to the pure power methods of the other clans and sects. The girl used a movement technique to quickly close the distance between her and Ryan, and struck out with her sword as she approached him.
Peng!
Ryan raised his own sword and successfully parried the attack. He was just about to follow up with his own when the girl used a unique looking movement technique and gracefully spun around and appeared at Ryan's side. A sword pierced towards his waist from an awkward angle, which caused Ryan to jump slightly in shock as he used his fastest movement technique to retreat.
A small piece of Ryan's robe was sliced off by the girls sword as he narrowly avoided the attack. Although he knew his opponent would be tough, Ryan still assumed it wouldn't be too hard since he was seeded much higher, but only now did he realize that Qi power and battle power wasn't the same thing.
The girl in front of him was most definitely used to fighting, and her graceful yet unpredictable fighting style made it quite difficult for Ryan to predict what she was going to do next.
The girl once again appeared in front of Ryan and pierced directly forward with her sword. It appeared to wobble and change trajectories as it approached him, and Ryan was unsure of if he would be able to successfully parry it. He raised his sword to block the oncoming attack, but the girl's sword twisted to the side at the last moment and managed to pierce his shoulder. Ryan quickly retreated backwards as blood started to flow from his shoulder.
The girl dashed towards Ryan once more, hoping to stay on the attack and pierced her sword towards him. Ryan decided against fighting such an opponent at their pace, and instead mustered his full strength to jump high in the air, barely avoiding the blow. The girl looked up to see Ryan with his glowing sword raised high above his head.
Ferocious Cleaving Technique!
A powerful red beam of destructive sword Qi came crashing down towards the girl. She hastily used a movement technique to dodge it, but the shockwave of the technique violently crashing into the ground threw her off balance. Ryan landed on the ground and quickly used the Ferocious Cleaving Technique once more, and sent another powerful beam of sword Qi towards the girl.
The girl, still off balance from the attack, hastily raised her delicate sword and used her own technique to parry it.
Techniques collided and the girl was sent flying backwards a dozen yards, but she managed to land gracefully at her feet.
Boom!
Just as the girl landed, a third Ferocious Cleaving Technique barely missed her and landed on the ground directly to her side and the force of the explosion immediately sent the girl flying once more. The girl landed hard on the ground and tumbled over a few times before she managed to right herself and prepared to stand up.
Her eyes quickly opened in shock as she stared directly in front of her. A sword tip was resting two inches from her face, and if he wanted to, Ryan could easily kill the girl before she could respond.
A disappointed look appeared on the girl's face before she opened her mouth. "I concede."